114 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
even practical slavery. Later the system was abandoned and the 
Indians allowed to shift largely for themselves. Coming from a 
densely populated country and an ancient civilization they had 
been subject for many centuries to an unusually severe struggle 
for existence. This struggle resulted in the survival of those who 
were most alert, best able to care for themselves, keenest in busi- 
ness dealing or in petty bartering. They were also marvelously 
frugal in their manner of life and used to enduring privation in 
order to accumulate a little property and get on in the world. 
Like the Hebrews, they were accustomed to the uses of adversity 
and eager to earn a wage that would enable them eventually to 
better their conditions. In Fiji they found themselves free from 
the galling bonds of the indenture system, in a land where a little 
work would satisfy their very modest daily needs and with almost 
no native competition to meet. The communistic Fijians were piti- 
fully equipped to compete with these thrifty strangers from a for- 
eign land. Accumulation of property was an idea utterly foreign 
to their traditions and way of thinking. In short, I believe that 
the fine, manly Fijians are no match for the Indian with his un- 
canny ability in driving a shrewd bargain, backed by many cen- 
turies of racial experience. The Fijian is but a child in an In- 
dian’s hands and can not cope with him in business matters. Thus 
there is a strong probability that the Fijian, like his brother of 
Hawaii, will be crowded to the wall by the steady encroachment 
of the newcomers until he loses out in the economic competition. 
Of course it might be possible for the Colonial Government to off- 
set his handicap by legal restrictions on the aggressive tactics of 
the Indian, but it is hard to say how this can be effected. 
Just as in Hawaii, the situation regarding the native birds is 
parallel to that of the native peoples. For in Fiji, too, the Eng- 
lish sparrow from the East and the mynah bird from the West are 
successfully competing with the aboriginal avifauna. Here, too, 
the British Colonials on the one hand and the Indians on the 
other furnish the upper and nether mill-stones between which the 
unfortunate Fijians are threatened with racial extinction, and the 
struggle for existence seems likely to end inexorably in the sur- 
vival of those best fitted through centuries of keen competition to 
survive. One can not avoid raising the question—Is the ‘‘fittest’’ 
actually the best race? In other words, is the Indian’ actually 
better than the Fijian? 
If a fine, manly physique and independent bearing which in- 
